Houston-based Southwest pilot suspended for on-air rant (w/audio)

Update: A Houston-based Southwest Airline pilot has been suspended after he inadvertently tied up vital air traffic control airwaves with a profane rant about his flight attendant co-workers.

KPRC first reported the pilot’s comments Tuesday night.
A recording of the March 25 rant, captured by the Houston Air Route Traffic Control Center as he made his way through the area, was obtained today by the Houston Chronicle.

In it, the male pilot bitterly assesses the date-ability of his crew and made disparaging remarks about his crew’s sexual orientation, weight and age.
“Eleven (expletive) over-the-top (expletive) (expletive) homosexuals and a granny,” the pilot can be heard saying, criticizing the lack of a dating pool aboard a recent flight. ” It was just a continuous stream of gays and grannies … .”

The pilot, whose name has not been released, was suspended and forced to apologize to his co-workers, KPRC reported.
Southwest Airlines could not be immediately reached for comment today.

The pilot’s cockpit microphone was stuck, inadvertently broadcasting his comments to other pilots and air traffic controllers, according to a statement released by the Federal Aviation Administration.

“An air-traffic controller in the Houston Air Route Traffic Control Center alerted all of the airplanes on the frequency to check for a stuck microphone and indicated that the conversation being broadcast was inappropriate over the air,” according to the FAA.

The Southwest Airlines pilot, who was not identified by the FAA or the airline, could be heard talking to his co-pilot in the cockpit, expressing frustration over the airline hiring so many flight attendants that he found to be unsuitable for dating.

Pilots within certain altitude guidelines over that entire geographic area were unable to communicate with Houston Center air traffic controllers for the entire four-minute duration of his conversation since his headset microphone was stuck.

“Well, I had Tucson to Indy all four weeks and, uh, Chicago crews … 11 out of 12 … there’s 12 flight attendants, individual, never the same flight attendant twice,” the pilot says. “Eleven (expletive) over the top (expletive), (expletive) homosexuals and a granny. Eleven. I mean, think of the odds of that. I thought I was in Chicago, which was party-land. … After that, it was just a continuous stream of gays and grannies and grandes …”